The core principles across multiple printable pages.
Quick-Start Cheat Sheets
Brains and How to Get Them
Apply the Teaching
Quick-Start Cheat Sheets for Brains and How to Get Them
Brains and How to Get Them - Quick-Start Cheat Sheets
Larson's principles for cultivating intelligence and mental capacity in one reference guide.
Inside the Cheat Sheets
One page per core principle
The Triadic Intelligence Model
Cognitive capacity is determined by three co-equal factors: the physical cells of the brain, the quality of mind acting through the brain, and the active direction of the mind itself.
Directed Attention as Physical Stimulus
The energy employed in thinking should build brain cells and develop faculties during the process of thought.
Effortless Focus
Deep concentration does not require tense, stressful mental effort.
Somatic Recovery as Active Ingredient
Rest is not the absence of development but an active part of it.
Domain-Specific Development
Specific cognitive talents - musical, artistic, literary, mechanical - are developed by concentrating attention on the perceptual and creative demands of that domain, stimulating the brain regions involved in that processing..
Democratic Genius
Genius and talent are qualities that can be systematically trained and built by anyone willing to apply directed concentration.
The Method
CBT, NLP and somatic principles built into every line
Every line on the cheat sheets is written in NLP presupposition structure - language that treats the principle as already true rather than something to aspire toward. This is not a stylistic choice; it is a functional one. The subconscious mind processes language that presupposes reality more readily than language that frames it as a goal. “Your attention filter is already working for you” lands differently than “try to change your attention filter.”
The layout applies CBT chunking principles: each principle sits in its own distinct block so the brain processes it as a discrete unit rather than as part of an undifferentiated wall of text. Cluttered reference material is processed as noise. Clean, spaced, visually distinct content is processed as signal. The design decisions are functional, not decorative.
Printed and placed visibly, the cheat sheets work as environmental priming - a principle from somatic psychology. What you see repeatedly, without actively reading, shapes your default perceptual set. A cheat sheet pinned above your desk works not only when you read it deliberately but when your peripheral vision catches it during ordinary work. The subconscious is always receiving.
Why we built it this way
Brains and How to Get Them is a direct predecessor to the DAR Align phase - specifically the work of building deliberate cognitive capacity through directed attention and restorative rest. Larson's concentration exercises are essentially early mindfulness-based cognitive training: holding sustained focus on a specific subject or quality for extended periods without mental strain. In the DAR framework this is the practice of choosing where to put your attention and sustaining it there - the foundation of the Rewire process.
Larson's somatic recovery protocol maps directly onto the DAR nervous system regulation work. His instruction to physically relax after intense concentration, to feel energy distributing through the nervous system, to rest deeply rather than push through fatigue - these are the biological prerequisites for consolidating the cognitive changes that concentration initiates. You cannot rewire what you cannot rest. Larson understood this in 1913 without the neuroscience vocabulary; DAR gives it that vocabulary and places it in a sequenced daily practice.
How to Use It
Three uses that actually work
- 1
Print and pin visibly
Pin the pages where you will see them without actively looking - above your desk, on the kitchen wall, beside the mirror. Peripheral exposure is the mechanism. You do not need to read it every day; you need it in your visual field.
- 2
Scan before a decision or challenge
Before a difficult conversation, a business decision, or a moment when the old pattern is likely to activate - read one principle deliberately. A 90-second scan primes the attentional filter before it is tested.
- 3
Use as a nightly anchor
The pre-sleep window is the subconscious's most receptive state. Reading one principle immediately before sleep is the highest-leverage moment in the day for impressing a new pattern. Two minutes - one principle, read slowly, felt rather than just processed.
Worth knowing
This is a reference tool, not a practice system
The cheat sheets give you the principles in a scannable, always-available format. They will not give you thirty days of structured daily practice - that is what the workbook is built for. If you want the 30-day practice system, it is here.
Who This Is For
You'll get the most from this if…
- ✓You believe your intelligence or cognitive capacity is fixed and want a framework for challenging that assumption
- ✓You want to understand the relationship between concentration, attention, and the physical development of mental capability
- ✓You are interested in talent development and want to know what the early self-help movement understood about how expertise is built
- ✓You struggle with mental fatigue, scattered attention, or cognitive burnout and want both a framework and practical recovery tools
- ✓You are a high performer who wants to extend mental longevity and protect cognitive sharpness over decades
- ✓You want the intellectual history behind growth mindset and neuroplasticity - the pre-scientific version that intuited the mechanism before the studies existed
Complete the Practice
Complete the Brains and How to Get Them practice
30-Day Challenge Workbook
Build the teaching into 30 days of structured daily practice.
Habit Tracker & Goal Planner
Track the micro-habits that compound into lasting change.
52-Week Daily Affirmation Calendar
52 weeks of daily affirmations - one for every day from May 2026 to April 2027.
Affirmation Card Deck
52 cards to carry the teaching into every part of your day.
The Toolkit
All five products for this work in one discounted bundle. Save 30%.
Annotated Edition
Christie L. Russell's annotated edition with neuroscience and NLP commentary.
About the Work
Brains and How to Get Them - New Thought, 1866-1954
Larson's guide to developing intelligence, mental acuity, and cognitive capacity - arguing that 'brains' are not fixed at birth but cultivated through specific mental habits.
The Science Behind It
Larson's prolific optimism-based approach is the closest New Thought comes to positive psychology as a formal discipline. His emphasis on the 'promise yourself' principle maps to self-compassion research - treating yourself as you would a good friend is one of the most evidence-backed interventions for sustained positive change. His insistence on consistency over intensity anticipates what we now know about neuroplasticity: small repeated actions create stronger and more durable neural pathways than occasional dramatic ones.
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